One Wild Night . . . I mean Day

It's 4:15 in the morning and instead of being in bed, on this particular morning, you could find me and my two good friends standing in the cold with thousands of other girls outside the Hynes Convention Center in Boston.

It was the morning of the Filene's Basement Running of the Brides and we were on a mission. (Click Here if you don't know what this is.)

We honestly had no idea what we were getting ourselves into and we almost backed out after watching all the fights from previous years on Youtube. Seriously I can't believe what some girls will do for a deal.

After discussing it at length though, we decided to go ahead and take a chance. I mean, even if we didn't get our hands on a dress (the racks are cleared off in 60 seconds flat) we would at least get the experience and it could be fun . . . right?

We were absolutely thrilled when we showed up and were within the first 100 people in line. That pretty much guaranteed us at least a few dresses. At least that's what we hoped it meant.

As we stood in line we started to notice just how crazy all the people around us were. There were groups of 10 who were all dressed up and were strategizing on how they would take entire racks of dresses and one guy behind us was instructing his team to throw elbows if anyone touched theirs. We died laughing because we were just three girls who's only plan was to grab as many dresses as we could, run to the back corner and just start screaming to find one another. We were either really smart or in serious trouble.

At about 7:00 we were all moved inside the convention center to prepare for the opening of the doors. We were shocked when we realized just how close we really were. Someone else was a little disappointed with how close they were and decided to pull the fire alarm to resolve their issue. I think they hoped we would all clear out and they would be able to move forward. It didn't happen though. Instead, people just laughed and firmly planted their feet. I told you some of the people there were crazy!

At about 5 minutes to 8:00 (Go Time) girls started pushing their way up and filling in space. I was separated from both my friends and ended up even closer. Hooray!

Okay, I'm going to be honest here. I was actually scared out of my mind. I was nervous about getting dresses without being trampled and worried about not being able to find my friends after. All that kept running through my head was, "what am I doing, what am I doing, what am I doing!" I fully intended to keep my camera out to capture all the chaos but as soon as that horn blew I focused and ran for my life.

I ran to the back, scooped up as many dresses as I could possibly carry and waddled to the back corner. I say waddled because wedding dresses are heavy and I am not as strong as I pretend to be sometimes.

My friends and I found each other right away and snagged a killer spot to try things on. After we piled our dresses up, we all sat back and died laughing at how well we did and at what a rush it was. For three girls who were just going for the experience we did amazingly well.

I immediately started trying things on while my friends traded and bargained to get more dresses. It was absolutely crazy in there but only the good kind. Dresses were being traded and thrown, girls were cheering and blowing whistles when they would find "The Dress", and people were generally nice and helpful.

However, after trying on all that we had collected plus more we had traded for I starting to feel a little down. My mom was not with me, I was running on about 3 hours of sleep and nothing thrilled me as far as dresses went. I was ready to give up and head home.

On our way out, we decided to see what was being hung back up on the racks just in case there was something we missed. We collected a few more dresses and headed to a mirror to try them on.

I honestly didn't think I would find anything, but when I put on the second dress and looked in the mirror the tears began to flow. It was everything I was looking for. It was simple and elegant and fit me perfectly.

(The dress pictured above is not "The Dress". I promise I'll show you . . . in June) :)

I was thrilled at my unbelievable find, purchased it and headed home for a much needed nap. My Filene's Basement experience had its ups and downs but ultimately proved successful. Hooray for crazy people and crazy sales!

We're Getting Married!!!

You can stop rubbing your eyes and no, you don't need to pull out your glasses because you read it right folks. Matty and I are getting married! He asked me last Saturday night on the anniversary of our first date and I said Yes!

The night was a little crazy, a little disastrous and a lot of fun. It went a little something like this:

Matt showed up at my house with the most beautiful bouquet of Star Gazer Lillis. We went to Costco to brows because it was a special day and Matt loves me. (note: Matt does not like Costco, especially browsing at Costco. So yes, this was special.) We had so much fun at Costco that we lost track of time, had to rush back to my house to change and ran out the door just as we should have been seated at Morton's Steak house for our 7:30 reservation. After calling the restaurant to tell them we'd be there in 10 minutes we proceeded to make 3 wrong turns and ended up at the airport. We didn't arrive at Morton's until about 8:15. Oops.

The people at the restaurant made it so special for us by taking a complimentary picture of us and printing up personalized menus. The only problem was that they misspelled both of our names and couldn't get our food right.

Our steak came out burnt to a crisp and not good the first time and almost completely raw in the middle the second time. As you can see, Matt was not impressed. Look really close though and you may just see a smile in those eyes. We thought it was kind of hilarious and just a little bit fitting.

After dinner we went for a walk along the Charles River in Cambridge. Matt and I took a lot of walks along the river throughout the summer and when we first started dating, so it's kind of a special place for us.

After walking for a while we stopped at a bench to look over the Boston skyline and to reminisce about how great the past year has been. Matt then dropped to his knee and asked me to marry him to which I of course said yes.

I'm so in love with my Matty and I can't wait to be his wife. Oh gosh, that sounds so weird . . . doesn't it? Wife. :)